Tue Mar 16, 2010, 8:57 PM
By Susanna Kelley, The Canadian Press
TORONTO - A higher incidence of fetal alcohol syndrome among some aboriginal communities in Canada is making their youth more vulnerable to being lured into gangs, experts say.
The syndrome, in which the brain of the fetus is damaged by excessive drinking during pregnancy, can make gang life seem exciting and attractive, say doctors and social workers who deal with aboriginal youth suffering from the condition.
And they worry that if more isn't done to provide support those youth could be lost to criminal life forever.
"If we don't get engaged in a solution for this issue, we are creating a nightmare, because we do know 60 per cent of the aboriginal population is under 25," said Steve Koptie, a veteran social worker and Mohawk.
"This is... a demographic tsunami facing Canada."
Koptie, who has spent several years in some of Canada's most remote and troubled reserves, said he's seen gangs in Hamilton use youths suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome to conduct break and enters and petty crimes.
"These kids are vulnerable."
Experts are careful to ascribe the vulnerability only to those youth who have actually been medically diagnosed with the syndrome.
"Kids that are in gangs, that have been medically identified with having (fetal alcohol syndrome)... there is still a correlation there," said Mitch Bourbonniere, a Metis social worker who has spent much of his life pulling kids out of gangs in Winnipeg.
"It's significant, for sure."
Youth with the syndrome often face a double-whammy. Many are dealing with poverty, addictions and abuse in a family that may also be breaking down, factors that can also draw youth into gangs, Bourbonniere added.
Several studies of aboriginal communities have shown the incidence of fetal alcohol syndrome can be 10 times that of the non-aboriginal population, said Dr. Chandrakant Shah, a pediatrician with Anishnawbe Health Toronto who has worked on aboriginal reserves for 30 years.
Health Canada pegs the incidence of the syndrome in some aboriginal and Inuit communities as high as one in five.
The federal agency says that each year up to 750 babies are born with full-blown fetal alcohol syndrome in Canada. About 1,000 are born with a range of alcohol-related damage, sometimes referred to as fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) or fetal alcohol effects (FAE), it says.
"It's not a racial issue so much as rampant use of alcohol," warns Dr. Albert Chudley, a professor of pediatrics and medical genetics at the University of Manitoba.
"It's a disease of poverty," said Chudley, adding not all aboriginal communities suffer from such alarming rates of the disorder.
Dr. Caroline Tait, assistant professor of native studies at the University of Saskatchewan, said she doesn't accept the argument that fetal alcohol syndrome makes youth more vulnerable to gangs.
A child without the syndrome who is raised in multiple foster homes, or is neglected or abused is just as vulnerable, Tait said.
Tait adds she's concerned that aboriginal women will be blamed for feeding the gang problem if the link is made between the two.
"It draws our attention away from the conditions of poverty, the other determinants... that I would argue are much more important if we want to understand gang involvement than FAS ever is."
A number of scientific studies solidly and consistently show an over-representation of those with fetal alcohol syndrome among those involved in criminal activity and in jails, Chudley said.
"Some of the injury affects the area of the brain that is involved in making decisions, that's involved in executive function, the pre-frontal area of the frontal cortex," he said.
"That makes it problematic for making appropriate decisions and results in really poor judgment in some of their activities and decisions in life."
In other words, Koptie said, these are not "bad kids" but kids with brain damage.
Bourbonniere says he too believes certain aspects of the condition lend themselves to gang life.
"(These) kids are more impressionable, more gullible, in some ways more innocent, easily influenced, attracted to structure, to fitting in, to peer influences," he said.
"All of that is found (in gangs)."
They are often impulsive, hampering their ability to think about the consequences of their actions and instead, living in the moment, he adds.
Bonnie Buxton, the author of "Damaged Angels" and who has raised a daughter and grandson with fetal alcohol syndrome, agrees.
"Most kids, if you steal from your mom's purse and she takes away your bicycle, you're not going to do that again," said Buxton.
"These kids don't realize that if they do these things that are illegal or dumb, there will be consequences. So they just do the same idiotic thing over and over."
The alcohol damage to the pre-frontal brain means they can't anticipate consequences, Chudley points out.
Experts do say that for children with fetal alcohol syndrome the situation is far from hopeless. They need a solid medical diagnosis, a mentor and more supports and services - help often unavailable on remote fly-in reserves or in city ghettos.
"What kids with FAE/FAS need is to be looked after. Even more so, they need the structure, the routine, the predictability, the protection," Bourbonniere says.
"And it's just not there."